Greg Novak

Greg is great. Super knowledgeable of the local area (San Leandro). He truly understood what we were looking for in our new home sometimes more than we did. He was patient and kept showing and recommending houses until we found or dream house. He knows how to craft an offer to help position us as a front runner in a multiple offer situation. Now we are in our dream house!

Greg is very knowledgeable of our local market and helped get us the maximum when selling our house and the right fit and price when buying our next house. He stayed on top of the contractors when preparing our house for sale and had a great eye for color and style when staging it to show off the house at its best.

We had to sell our son's house after his premature death. Some of his friends were interested in bidding. Greg was helpful in suggesting what needed to be done to the house to make it attractive on the market (some cleaning, some gardening, some painting) and what would be required (sewer work, assessments of termite or dry rot damage). We asked him to estimate cost of the voluntary things versus benefit in increased value of the house. And we used that to offer an "as-is" price to friends of our son's. Greg was good at vetting an offer that was given, to be sure that it could go forward as offered. He linked us with a cleaning person and arranged for the required studies to be done by contractors known to him who were prompt and reasonable in price. He was skillful in working with our son's ex, who had property in the house and who needed to move things out in a timely manner. He made things smooth for us in our time of grief.

Greg walked us through the entire process and kept in constant contact. He had several vendors lined up before we knew it to help us complete final preparations to get the house on market. In the end we sold quickly and WELL over list price!

We chose Greg as our listing agent for the recent sale of our Oakland home and would highly recommend his services. His insight and guidance throughout the process was invaluable. He worked within our budget and made several suggestions about getting our home into the condition needed to get maximum attention and top dollar. His communication was great and helped us stay on track every step along the way. Thank you, Greg!

Greg was referred to us and he is very personable and a great communicator. He is aware of what a seller is going through and allows them space to work through the process. It is obvious he has a proven system.

Greg is a fabulous realator. He is incredibly organized, thoughtful, punctual and thorough. He knows Sheffield village and the surrounding area better than any realator and he has an excellent team who work hard to make your home look fabulous for sale. I highly highly highly recommend him to sell your home, he will get the job done! We thank him so much for his excellent job selling our home.

Greg was excellent to work with. We have sold more than a couple homes in our time, and we have very high expectations of our brokers. Greg exceeded them all. If you list with Greg, and I highly recommend that you listen to his suggestions, you will be very happy with the results.

Working with Greg to sell our home was a very positive experience. Greg has excellent communication skills. He kept us well informed throughout the entire process of selling our home. Greg is very conscientious about promptly returning calls and emails. He has a great deal of knowledge about the area he serves. Greg was able to negotiate according to our expectations. He is honest, hard-working, knowledgeable, and affable. We have recommended Greg to others, and will continue to do so.

It was a pleasure having Greg as our agent. He made the selling process smooth and as stress-free as possible being that we moved out of the states during the initial start of this process. Greg is an agent that is very experienced in what he does, trustworthy, and honest. We would not been able to have chosen a better agent and would recommend him to anyone who is trying to sell their home.

Greg is an amazing Real Estate Agent. I felt so comfortable with him right from the start. He is honest and listens carefully to what is important to you. Then he finds houses that match your preferences and stands back to let you make unpressured decisions. If you have questions he will answer them with honesty, knowledge and integrity. When there are challenges, he finds ways to face them with people that he can trust. He was able to get me an amazing home inspector. Every question I had he was able to find the expert that I needed. In this housing market I knew it would be hard for me to buy a house because of the competition. Greg was able to give me the best advice so that my offer was accepted. Probably what I like most about Greg is his patience and his gentle nudging that you realize is at just the right time. Greg has character.

The BEST realtor we've ever worked with on selling our house at Oakland, CA. - Last November, my family decided to move to Sacramento and planned to sell our house. We met with a few realtors, concluded that Greg was the most suitable candidate. During our first meeting, he shared his marketing strategy and the selling process throughly. When we expressed our concern of the packing troubles, he didn't hesitate to offer help, he suggested to affix labels on unwanted furniture, other household debris could be left in the garage, then he would sort them out and send them out to different organization ( 3 weeks later, we were extremely pleased to see all things were gone and the garage was ready to be painted, amazing ! ) We're very impressed by Greg's effort to help us as no realtors ,in our past moving ,would help us that much of the work ! Before we finalized with the packing, Greg made arrangement with a moving company to help our moving journey. In less than 3 weeks of packing, my family moved to Sacramento successfully. Greg, thank you again !
In order to cater to the taste of buyers. through the referral from Greg, we hired a reputable design company to renovate our house. During the renovation, Greg followed each progress and sent pictures to us, he often went to the house to to check the project , making sure everything was done accordingly, he communicated with the design company on behalf of us. We absolutely trusted Greg's expertise, we rarely need to drive to Oakland from Sacramento to see the upgrade project. He gave us invaluable information all along the selling process that, without it, would have caused us headaches down the road.
At the final phrase of the preparation, Greg invited a professional photographers to take photos of the house, both in the morning and evening. When these photos posted on numerous real estates web and social media sites, it attracted enthusiastic attention, hundreds of people visited the first weekend open house on rainy days, an offer was proposed on the same day. Greg's marketing strategy was to receive offers after the second weekend . We received more than a dozen buying offers and Greg helped us to review each one of them carefully. We finally accepted a all cash offer with none contingency. Escrow was closed 2 weeks later successfully.
My family is now happily living at Sacramento, we still grateful for everything that Greg did for us and for our sold house. These enjoyable experience will always be our beautiful memories.
We've run out of adjectives to describe Greg. Still , we want to drop a few more lines about Greg :
** Professional, always punctual, pay constant attention to client's opinion and processed immediately.
** Quick response to calls/messages/emails, even when he was out of town on vacation.
** Extensive connections with design company, contractors, painters, handyman, cleaning service, you name it, he has it. You don't want to hire a realtor who knows nobody and you, the seller , ends up doing all the preparation ! My family came across this chaos twice in the past. So it's very important to know what your agent could do and couldn't do. Don't take the empty promise, check before you sign the contract.
Greg is a very faithful realtor who delivers his promises .
** Greg is polite, gentle and warm. He doesn't push client to make any rush decision. He treats client like his friends, he would go to the ware stores to find small things that your house needs. Awesome !
We definitely would recommend Greg to anyone looking for a realtor they can trust, and eventually call a friend !
Greg, from the bottom for our hearts, thanks again !

Greg was absolutely amazing throughout the process of selling our house!

Patient, detail oriented and he knows exactly how to market a house. He thought of every detail that goes into preparation, staging and presentation - we can't say enough about his process!

If you are considering selling your house anywhere Greg is your man!

If you follow his proven sales plan and do what he says - he will get you top dollar!

We would recommend him to anyone without reservation!

We had a amazing and excellent experience working with Greg!

Throughout the process selling our home he was patient and made sure we understood each step to get the house ready for sale. Always available no matter day or night.

Attention to detail. He had everything covered and anticipated our questions before we even asked.

Made sure each step of the process worked like clockwork. We are thankful for his knowledge, expertise and guidance in this process.

Greg is a pleasure to work with. I would recommend Greg to anyone!

If you want top dollar for your house he will make it happen!

Greg Novak of Marvin Gardens Real Estate was the realtor we chose to sell my dad's "contractor's special". He and his team provided a clear template for a successful sale that resulted in the sale of my father's home. We had 21 offers, it went $90k over asking, a three day escrow, all cash, and no contingencies! Well done!

Greg helped us sell our house. I've known Greg as a neighbor for years and his knowledge of the neighborhood, ranging from pricing to market timing, current color trends to paint the house, and attention to detail were spot on. We were anxious in regard to the right amount of work we'd need to do on the house to make it just this much more marketable, but Greg came up with a plan for us without hesitation. And it was a success, the house sold in 10 days! I highly recommend Greg, easy to work with, punctual, reliable judgment, and great network of contractors. You won't regret it.

Greg is the best! We are so happy we worked with him. His attention to detail, professionalism and knowledge was very helpful in selling our first home. He made the process easy, low stress and he is fun to work with. This was our first experience selling a home and we didn't know where to start, but Greg guided us through it all. He referred us to the right people who helped us with all stages of the process... gardener, handy man, staging company, moving company, etc. We chose to move out when we put our house on the market. Greg was our eyes, ears and hands on our home when we couldn't be there. He want above and beyond in making sure our home was kept secure and in good order. Greg's communication was outstanding through every step. We also enjoyed working with Greg's support team at Marvin Gardens. Everyone who assisted in our transaction was very helpful and on point. We also liked that Marvin Gardens is a local agency that is very involved in its community. Greg's counsel and approach to marketing, listing and ultimately negotiating the sale targeted resulted in closing at $123,000 over asking. We highly recommend his services. He is awesome and would give him 10 stars if we could!

Greg is an amazing realtor and I'd recommend him to anyone. He helped us to sell my mother's house and was so thorough about all the details and making sure we knew what to expect. The marketing plan for the house really set it apart on the market and we received several offers over the asking price. During the contract and escrow period he was detail oriented and made sure that everything was done properly, and was very communicative. We really had a great experience working with Greg and we look forward to working with him again next time we need a realtor.

Greg is amazing, everything you want in a realtor:
experience with the east bay neighborhoods, trends,homes and condos, mortgages, to name a few.
He is patient, reliable, always available and responsive, a great communicator, and excellent at negotiating.
Because of his great personal skills he can work with all types of agents.
My husband and I have sold and purchased 9 properties in the past 15 yrs in Southern California before coming up to the east bay, so we have worked with many agents. Believe me there is no one else like Greg. I cannot recommend him more highly. If I could give 10 stars I would.

We felt SO LUCKY to find Greg! As first time homebuyers, my husband and I were overwhelmed by the real estate search, and we were also managing our rambunctious 9-month old during the home buying process. But Greg is a truly kind hearted person who wants the best for his clients. In an industry that sometimes gets a bad rap, we found one of the good ones! We highly recommend Greg!

While Greg was an excellent communicator, extremely knowledgeable, and his strategy was, in my opinion, crucial to our offer being accepted, his greatest attribute must surely be his personality. Greg made us feel comfortable to the point where our long weekends of visiting open houses and any other time viewing properties felt more like hanging out with a friend than working with a realtor. We often joked how even if we never found the right house (which we certainly did!), we would always look forward to our "weekends with Greg".

From the moment I first called Greg, I have been impressed with how much thought and professionalism he puts into his work. When I called him originally (he came recommended by the property manager over at Marina Bay) he answered the phone right away and we proceeded to talk for close to 10 minutes or so about the neighborhood and real estate market which was very helpful and informative. I was not ready to move on things right away but we did stay in touch and when it came time, Greg really gave it his all up until we closed escrow.
Greg is very easy to work with and really does "work" with you so you always feel a part of the process. He has great contacts for any work that is needed and does things with attention to detail always drawing upon his vast real estate and property management experience to help you be successful. His process is well thought out and extremely effective and he is always there to help explain things keeping in touch via text and phone as well as in-person if needed 7 days a week. I have nothing but good things to say about him and it was a pleasure to write this review for someone so deserving of our praise.

Working with Greg Novak, my sister and I found him to be extremely professional and honest in how he helped us approach the preparation and sale of the home our family has had since 1965. His recommendations helped guide improvements both necessary and elective to spruce up the house to make it presentable for sale in the neighborhood without over-extending our budget for repairs. Greg made the process fun even though some tasks and coordination with contractors did not go as smooth as we would have preferred.

Gregs knowledge of the neighborhood, plus the fact he lives in the neighborhood, were the main reasons we decided to work with him. He has done extensive research into the history of the area, Sheffield Village, where the first homes were built in 1939 and he currently serves as the President of the homeowners association. Even before signing up with him to represent us for the sale, he was willing to offer opinions such as recommending an appraiser to assess the value of the property for stepped-up value based on the date of our fathers death.

Once we were moving forward with preparing the house for sale, Greg was in constant contact via email and text. I looked forward to getting messages from him noting the progress when I wasn't able to stop by. If there were questions, he was efficient in providing advice and answers. His recommendations for painters, landscape improvements and the crew to do the work in the yard greatly enhanced the curb appeal. He set up a schedule and when we found some work inside the house was taking a bit longer than we originally planned, he rolled with the delay and reset the schedule as well as the date of the listing. This included coordinating and rescheduling the house inspections.

Gregs concern for how the house presented itself included his request that the staging be revised in order to facilitate what we agreed were the best flow and views for showings and the open houses. His marketing team at Marvin Gardens, including the photographer, put together a website and brochures that produced many positive comments and ultimately encouraged potential buyers to visit in person, resulting in multiple offers above the sales price.

Our experience with Greg was so enjoyable, I certainly consider him a friend and hope to maintain contact even though the sale has been finalized and we will no longer be in the Village. We highly recommend Greg Novak for anyone considering selling or buying a home.

After interviewing many agents, we chose Greg to sell our home. He worked in partnership with Keith Maddock and between the two of them, they provided excellent service scheduling and managing the many contractors to prepare our home for sale. Greg was always available by phone, text, or email, bought repair/replacements items with later reimbursement to help us stay on schedule, and stayed late during our four Open Houses to talk to potential buyers. Our house received multiple offers after 25 days on the market and went for $27K over asking. Gregs experience in property management and then real estate sales inspired confidence and he was an enthusiastic advocate in the sale of our home.

My family and I were relocating to the US from overseas, and so we needed a lot of help not just finding our new home but also learning how everything worked. Greg, in partnership with Keith Maddock, dedicated a huge amount of time to our needs. Our property search was extremely well organised and executed. Once we had chosen our new home, Greg and Keith handled almost all of the purchase process on our behalf without any issues or delays. But most impressive has been how Greg and Keith have remained in constant contact with us post sale, advising on everything from contractors, to utilities, to insurance, to hiking trails in the area, to which sports teams our kids should be supporting. I have no hesitation in recommending Greg and Keith to anybody looking to buy a property in the East Bay area. It has been fantastic working with them.